America  and  Ireland 


AN  OPEN  LETTER 

TO 

MR.  GARRET  W.  McENERNEY 

BY 

REV.  P.  C.  YORKE,  D.  D. 


TEXT   BOOK   PUBLISHING   CO. 

95  Ninth  Street  San  Francisco,   Cal. 

Price,  10  Cents. 


1?J:.  .^c   /3?^^-^^^ 


URL  -^ 

AMERICA  AND  IRELAND 


AN  OPEN  LETTER 

TO 

MR.  GARRET  W.  McENERNEY 

BY 

REV.  P.  C.  YORKE,  D.  D. 


Dear  Sir: 

Do  not  think,  I  beg  you,  that  I  am  un- 
mindful of  past  years  and  much  kindness, 
because  I  write  this  letter  to  you.  When  I 
received  your  invitation  to  attend  your 
banquet  to  Mr.  T.  P.  O'Connor,  I  had  not 
for  a  moment  the  slightest  doubt  as  to  vs^hat 
answer  I  should  make.  Even  to  enjoy  the 
pleasure  of  your  company  I  could  not  break 
bread  with  a  man  who  had  accused  me,  and 
those  who  think  with  me,  of  working  for 
"German  gold."  But  I  did  hang  in 
doubt  till  the  very  last  minute  as  to  whether 
I  should  open  my  mind  to  you  on  Mr. 
O'Connor     and     his     propaganda.     After 


thought  I  concluded  that  you  knew  your 
own  business  best,  and  I  contented  myself 
with  the  conventional  declination. 

As,  however,  at  that  banquet  you  have 
given  the  authority  of  your  name  to 
the  arguments  of  Mr.  Dillon  published 
in  English  reviews  and  Dublin  newspapers, 
and  industriously  circulated  in  this  coun- 
try by  Mr.  T.  P.  O'Connor,  to  the  effect 
that  any  attempt  in  Ireland  to  establish  the 
Irish  Republic  would  be  an  act  hostile  to  the 
Allies,  and  that  "any  support,  moral  or  ma- 
terial, given  in  America  to  that  movement 
is  now  treasonable  to  the  people  and  gov- 
ernment of  the  United  States,"  I  am  com- 
pelled in  justice  to  myself  to  examine  the 
"inexorable  logic"  by  which  you  fasten  the 
guilt  of  treason  on  so  many  of  your  old 
friends  and  fellow-citizens.  It  is  true  you 
deprecate  controversy,  and  claim  to  speak 
in  a  purely  impersonal  way,  but  even  in 
war  time  men  have  a  right  to  defend  their 
good  name  and  everybody  knows  that  nine- 
tenths  of  the  Irish  in  San  Francisco  have 
formally  declared  for  that  Irish  Republic 
which  you  describe  as  the  supreme  crime 


against  the  American  people,  that  is  to  say, 
treason  against  the  American  State. 

It  is  true,  too,  that  with  more  than  archi- 
episcopal  authority,  you  have  absolved  us 
of  conscious  guilt.  But,  after  all,  we  have 
come  to  the  use  of  reason,  and  may  be  sup- 
posed to  be  in  the  possession  of  our  facul- 
ties, and  the  processes  of  'inexorable  logic" 
are  not  so  complicated  that  we  need  great 
legal  skill  to  understand  the  nature  of  our 
oath  of  allegiance,  or  know  the  elementary 
duties  of  citizenship.  If  to  advocate  the  es- 
tablishment of  an  Irish  Republic  be  treason 
to  the  United  States,  then  we  have  all  been 
deliberately  and  knowingly  guilty,  and  we 
cannot  plead  ignorance  as  our  defense. 

I. 

Before  I  examine  the  ''inexorable  logic" 
by  which  you  nicely  adjust  the  noose  about 
our  necks,  let  me  say  a  few  words  as  to 
the  reason  why  the  representative  Irish  of 
San  Francisco,  Irish  born,  and  Native  born, 
have  refused  to  receive  Mr.  O'Connor, 
and  have  formally  repudiated  him. 

1 .    You  have  in  your  address  given  us  two 


reasons  why  he  should  have  been  assured 
'Svelcome  and  hospitality  from  men  of 
Irish  origin  everywhere."  The  first  reason 
is  that  ^'he  is  the  President  of  the  United 
Irish  League  in  Great  Britain,"  and  the 
second  is  that  he  is  the  accredited  repre- 
sentative of  '^the  Nationalist  Party  which 
has  been  the  voice  of^  Ireland  for  a  time 
running  back  to  and  before  Parnell." 

You  may  be  surprised  to  learn  that  the 
United  Irish  League  has  been  for  years 
the  poor  shadow  of  a  name,  not  only  in 
Great  Britain,  but  also  in  Ireland  itself.  It 
has  long  since  sunk  to  the  level  of  those 
political  clubs,  so  familiar  in  our  own  pub- 
lic life,  kept  together  by  a  few  chronic 
office-holders,  and  galvanized,  for  financial 
reasons,  into  a  semblance  of  life  in  the  good 
old  pre-election  time. 

But  if  it  were  true  that  Mr.  O'Connor's 
League  in  Great  Britain  had  the  millions 
he  claims,  they  have  no  more  right  to  speak 
for  Ireland  than  we  in  America  have. 

There  seems  to  be  an  idea  in  the  air  that 
we  in  America  have  the  right  to  come  to- 
gether and  formulate  some  kind  of  a  policy 


or  constitution  for  the  Irish  people,  and 
then  force  it  on  them.  This  is  the  false 
note  that  runs  all  through  your  speech,  and 
for  over  thirty  years  I  have  heard  it  in 
the  speeches  of  Americans  friendly  to  Ire- 
land, and  w^ishing  her  w^ell.  The  true  doc- 
trine is  the  categoric  contradiction  of  that 
claim.  Just  as  the  beginning  and  end  of 
genuine  Americanism  is,  that  nobody  has 
the  right  to  speak  for  America  but  the  peo- 
ple of  America,  so  no  one  has  the  right  to 
speak  for  the  people  of  Ireland  but  the 
Irish  people  in  Ireland. 

You  seem  to  be  under  the  impression 
also  that  the  Sinn  Fein  is  a  political  party. 
There  was  once  a  political  party  that  called 
itself  the  Sinn  Fein,  of  w^hich  Mr.  Arthur 
Griffith  was  the  head.  That  party  has 
been  extinct  for  years  and  no  one  knows  it 
better  than  Mr.  T.  P.  O'Connor.  The  Sinn 
Fein  of  today  is  more  than  a  political  par- 
ty. It  is  a  soul,  a  spirit.  Sinn  Fein  is  the 
Irish  for  the  Monroe  Doctrine,  and  ex- 
presses in  two  syllables  what  uur  own  Pres- 
ident has  formulated  ''as  the  right  to  na- 
tional  self-determination."     It  is   applica- 


ble,  not  only  to  politics  but  also  to  every 
way,  shape  and  form  in  which  a  nation  or- 
ganizes itself.  It  is  true  of  all  real  nations, 
and  why  should  that  be  a  crime  in  Ireland 
that  is  a  virtue  in  every  other  country?  Is 
Ireland  a  lusus  naturae  or  the  oddity  of  all 
the  Gentiles  that  that  should  be  stark  mad- 
ness among  her  children  that  it  is  the  highest 
statesmanship  among  all  the  other  sons  of 
men? 

2.  The  second  reason  you  have  given  why 
we  should  take  Mr.  T.  P.  O'Connor  to  our 
bosoms  is  based  on  the  assumption  that  the 
Irish  Nationalist  Party,  or  rather  that  sec- 
tion of  it  known  as  the  Redmondites,  repre- 
sents the  Irish  people.  You  might  as  well 
claim  that  the  Congress  of  i9io  represents 
the  United  States  of  today.  You  know  the 
present  English  Parliament  is  a  ''Spent  Par- 
liament.'' The  so-called  "unwritten  consti- 
tution of  England"  is  merely  a  myth.  Par- 
liament is  the  constitution,  and  this  Parlia- 
ment is  kept  alive  from  year  to  year  sim- 
ply and  solely  because  the  ruling  junta  is 
afraid  to  go  to  the  country.  You  know, 
too,    how    narrow   the    Irish    franchise   is: 


you  know  how  old  and  faulty  are  the  regis- 
tration lists;  you  know  how  the  Redmond- 
ites  are  entrenched  in  the  jobs;  yet,  with 
the  exception  of  South  Armagh,  where  they 
had  to  meet  with  the  opposition  of  Car- 
dinal Logue,  and  Waterford,  where  the 
personal  influence  of  the  Redmond  family 
was  so  great,  men  professing  the  Sinn  Fein 
principles,  were  successful  in  the  bye-elec- 
tions; and  even  in  Armagh  and  Waterford 
the  Redmondites  only  won  by  the  skin  of 
their  teeth.  The  Redmondite  party  does 
not  represent  the  people  of  Ireland,  and 
the  voice  of  T.  P.  O'Connor  is  not  the 
voice  of  the  Irish.  I  do  not  claim  that  Ire- 
land is  unanimously  Sinn  Fein,  but  I  do 
claim,  and  I  know  as  much  about  it  as  Mr. 
T.  P.  O'Connor,  that  in  an  election  held 
today  on  adult  suffrage  in  Ireland,  the 
Redmondites  would  be  swept  out  on  a  tidal 
wave  into  oblivion. 

And  can  you  wonder  at  it?  Mr.  Dillon 
boasted  the  other  day  that  he  had  been 
forty  years  in  politics,  and  De  Valera  re- 
torted: "Forty  years  in  politics  explains 
heaps  of  things."    Where  are  the  American 


8 

policies  of  forty  years  ago?  Is  not  the  law 
of  change  the  law  of  every  human  state? 
Is  Ireland  the  land  of  the  Lotus  Eaters, 
and  are  her  children  ever  to  sit  down  be- 
tween the  level  sun  and  the  unchanging 
moon?  Is  she  to  have  no  vision  of  better 
things,  and  no  dream  of  achievement?  You 
call  the  condition  of  public  opinion  in  Ire- 
land madness.  O  Felix  culpa  and  thrice 
blessed  madness  that  has  stirred  the  stag- 
nant pool  of  Bethesda  for  the  healing  of 
the  people. 

And  why  should  not  madness  be  abroad 
in  the  land?  For  forty  years  Ireland  has 
trusted  the  Parliamentary  Party.  For  forty 
years  Ireland  has  supported  them  in  spite 
of  all  their  mistakes  and  quarrels,  and  im- 
becilities. For  forty  years  Ireland  has 
forced  a  unity  of  political  opinion  that  had 
almost  atrophied  her  powers  to  think  in 
terms  of  politics  at  all.  And  after  forty 
years  what  did  she  get?  She  saw  Mr.  T.  P. 
O'Connor  and  his  colleagues  sink  to  the 
level  of  the  English  Whigs.  She  saw  their 
leader,  John  Redmond,  completely  assimil- 
ated to  the  English  ideal  which  thinks  of 


England's  interests  first  and  of  Ireland's  af- 
terwards. She  saw  the  party  accept  a  con- 
temptible little  measure  of  local  govern- 
ment and  then  meekly  acquiesce  when  it 
was  snatched  away  from  them.  She  saw 
Redmond  first  disrupt  and  then  destroy  the 
Irish  Volunteers — the  only  defense  of  the 
Irish  people  against  Carson's  Orange  bull- 
ies. She  saw  the  Redmondite  Party  basely 
agree  to  accept  the  principle  of  the  dis- 
memberment of  Ulster,  and,  above  all,  she 
heard  the  cheers  that  swept  through  St. 
Stephen's  Hall  when  the  Irish  prisoners  of 
war  were  murdered  in  Dublin  town. 

To-day  Mr.  Dillon,  the  new  head  of  the 
Party,  declares  that  Redmond  was  ''sold 
and  betrayed"  by  the  English  politicians. 
Of  course  he  was  sold  and  betrayed  as  Par- 
nell  was  sold  and  betrayed — as  Butt  was 
sold  and  betrayed — as  O'Connell  was  sold 
and  betrayed — as  every  Irishman  shall  be 
sold  and  betrayed  as  long  as  the  infernal 
connection  lasts. 

No,  Mr.  McEnerney,  the  Redmondite 
Party  does  not  represent  Ireland,  and  the 
mellifluous  voice  of  your  guest  is  not  the 


voice  of  the  Irish  people.  But  I  will  tell 
you  whose  voice  his  is.  His  is  the  voice  of 
Lord  Northclifife,  his  is  the  voice  of  Lloyd 
George,  his  is  the  voice  of  the  English 
Government.  Mr.  T.  P.  O'Connor  dis- 
interestedly draws  down  more  than  one 
salary,  and  he  is  in  this  country  on 
English  business.  That  business  is  to  de- 
fame his  own  countrymen  in  the  effort 
to  terrorize  them  to  abandon  the  old  cause. 
Even  though  he  has  interested  you,  by 
what  argument,  I  cannot  conjecture,  to  co- 
operate with  him,  and  though  we  have  our 
share  of  sycophants,  poltroons  and  desert- 
ers, I  assure  you  we  have  weathered  worse 
storms  than  this. 

You  ought  to  know  Irish  history  well 
enough  to  remember  that  whenever  Eng- 
land meditated  any  great  iniquity  against 
Ireland  she  always  started  her  campaign  by 
slandering  the  Irish.  The  Normans  began 
it  away  back  in  the  days  of  Henry  II,  w^hen 
they  wanted  an  excuse  for  the  invasion. 
The  Saxons  did  it  in  Elizabeth's  time  when 
they  tried  to  exterminate  a  nation.  The 
English  did  it  in  CromwelPs  time  when  in 


II 

their  pious  hunger  for  land  they  consigned 
your  ancestors  to  hell  or  to  Connaught. 
They  did  it  in  '98,  and  in  '47,  when  they 
wished  to  hide  their  guilt  from  a  horrfied 
world.  Mr.  T.  P.  O'Connor  can  tell  you  at 
first  hand  how  well  they  did  it  in  the  Land 
League  days  and  now,  O  quantum  mutatus 
ab  illo,  he — even  he — is  here  doing  in  the 
same  old  way,  the  same  old  dirty  work. 

I  am  convinced  that  England  to-day  is 
planning  the  supreme  betrayal  of  Ireland. 
I  believe  that  the  English  ruling  classes 
are  prepared  to  out-Cromwell  Cromwell 
in  order  to  settle  the  Irish  question  for 
good  and  all,  and,  at  the  same  time,  to  pro- 
vide for  the  needy  veterans  of  the  great 
war.  Here  is  the  voice  of  the  class  that  has 
always  ruled  England,  and  will  always  rule 
England  as  long  as  her  empire  lasts.  It 
was  uttered  in  the  Morning  Post  of  Febru- 
ary i6.  It  is  the  manifesto  of  the  great 
Cecil  clan : 

Sir:  We  have  hitherto  been  silent, 
though  with  considerable  hesitation,  on 
the  Irish  Question,  whilst  the  Convention 
was    sitting.      But    further   silence    will 


12 


probably  lead  to  misconception.  It  is 
necessary  therefore  to  say  that  many  of 
ns  see  no  sufficient  reason  to  agree : 

1.  To  putting  any  pressure  upon  a 
reluctant  Ulster  to  accept  an}^  separa- 
tion from  the  Parliament  of  the  United 
Kingdom;  or 

2.  To  any  settlement  of  the  Irish 
question  which  ignores  the  interests  of 
Great  Britain  or  the  security  of  the 
Empire. 

Let  me  add  that  recent  history  has 
again  convinced  us,  however  considerate 
we  must  be  to  Irish  wishes  and  senti- 
ments, that  Ireland,  like  every  other 
country,  cannot  be  governed  except  with 
a  firm  hand.    Yours,  etc..        Salisbury. 

Mr.  McEnerney,  ask  Mr.  T.  P.  O'Con- 
nor what  the  government  of  Ireland  'Svith 
a  firm  hand"  means  in  the  mouth  of  his 
father's  son.  Ask  him  how  that  other  Ce- 
cil, ^'Bloody"  Balfour,  got  his  title.  He 
can  tell  you  of  the  evictions,  of  the  crowded 
jails,  of  the  mock  trials,  of  the  orders  to  the 
police  ''not  to  hesitate  to  shoot,"  of  the 
Mitchelstown  massacre.  Don't  let  him  tell 
you  that  the  laws  are  altered  and  the  Eng- 
lish  converted.     The   English   Parliament 


13 

that  changed  the  law  can  change  it  back, 
and  the  events  of  Easter  Week  prove  that 
the  Ethiopian  has  not  changed  his  skin  nor 
the  leopard  his  spots. 

The  sole  thing  that  stands  between  Ire- 
land to-day  and  utter  ruin  is  American 
public  opinion.  What  America  thinks  will 
determine  whether  England  shall  smite 
without  mercy  or  hold  her  hand.  Therefore 
she  is  engaged  with  every  instrument  in  her 
power  in  making  over  the  traditional 
American  opinion  that  favored  Ireland. 
Northclifife  has  boasted  of  his  10,000  agents 
engaged  in  this  colossal  work.  Of  them 
Mr.  T.  P.  O'Connor  is  not  the  least 
able,  not  the  least  astute.  He  is  work- 
ing on  the  Irish  themselves  and  the  chil- 
dren of  the  Irish.  He  is  appealing  to 
their  deep  love  and  undivided  loyalty  to 
America.  He  is  arguing  that  all  who  in 
Ireland  and  here  support  the  claim  of  the 
Irish  Nation  to  self-determination  are  trait- 
ors to  America.  He  is  whispering,  insin- 
uating, asserting  that  in  Ireland  the  Sinn 
Feiners  are  attacking  and  insulting  the 
American  sailors  and  burning  the  Ameri- 


can  flag.  If  England  shall  succeed  in 
changing  American  public  opinion,  and 
who  is  so  bold  as  to  say  she  may  not  suc- 
ceed, when  a  man  like  T.  P.  O'Connor  can 
secure  the  co-operation  of  a  man  like  Gar- 
ret McEnerney — then  when  blood  touch- 
eth  blood  and  we  shall  eat  out  our  hearts  in 
impotent  despair — then,  Mr.  McEnerney, 
look  to  your  hands  and  even  the  judicial 
ermine  will  not  hide  the  damned  dye  to 
which  they  are  subdued. 


II, 


There  is  another  question  of  fact  which  I 
think  it  well  to  examine  at  this  point. 
When  Mr.  T.  P.  O'Connor  is  not  mourn- 
ing over  the  disloyalty  of  those  who  are 
w^orking  for  ''German  gold,"  he  is  weeping 
over  the  misuse  of  "American  money."  He 
has  taken  a  lesson  from  the  tactics  of  the 
London  Tunes  which  in  the  Land  League 
days  described  the  Parnellites  as  murder- 
ous moonlighters,  incited  to  crime  by  the 
"money  of  the  Irish  servant  girls  of  Amer- 
ica."    He  is  whispering  round  the  country 


15 

that  the  Irish  societies  are  sending  money 
to  Europe  to  be  used  against  the  Allies  and 
the  United  States  in  this  war.  The  baser 
hangers-on  of  the  British  consulate  have 
printed  in  their  rag  in  this  city  the  charge 
that  Archbishop  Hanna  collected  money 
on  the  steps  of  his  Cathedral  to  buy  guns 
for  the  Irish  rebels.  You,  Mr.  McEner- 
ney,  more  than  insinuate  that  where  there 
is  so  much  smoke  there  must  be  some  fire, 
and  with  fine  and  fraternal  charity  you  re- 
mind us  of  the  break  of  day,  the  wall  and 
the  firing  squad. 

Now,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  in  California, 
and,  as  far  as  I  am  informed,  throughout 
the  United  States,  since  the  year  i9i4, 
money  has  been  collected  for  Irish  pur- 
poses in  Ireland  only  on  two  occasions. 

I.  To  take  the  latter  first,  the  collection 
in  i9i6,  amounting  in  this  city  to  about 
$So,ooo,  was  devoted  to  the  relief  of  dis- 
tress in  Dublin  following  the  events  of 
Easter  Week.  We  were  informed  in  Amer- 
ica that  owing  to  the  dislocation  of  normal 
life  caused  by  the  rising,  women  and  chil- 
dren,  in   Dublin  especially,  were   in   dire 


i6 


need.  We  were  informed  that  the  relief 
organized  under  the  regime  of  the  English 
Government,  to  which  at  that  time  Mr. 
John  Dillon  and  Mr.  Joseph  Devlin,  col- 
leagues of  Mr.  T.  P.  O'Connor,  were  chief 
advisers,  callously  refused  aid  to  the  friends 
or  dependents  of  any  one  suspected  of 
sympathy  with  the  Irish  Republic.  We 
naturally,  with  the  true  American  spirit, 
responded  to  the  call  and  we  organized  to 
do  our  share  in  succoring  the  victims  of 
English  tyranny  as  we  had  succored  them 
many  and  many  a  time  before.  We  laid 
the  matter  before  our  people  in  San  Eran- 
cisco  at  a  public  meeting.  We  took  up  no 
collections  in  our  churches  as  we  had  done 
for  the  Italians  and  the  Belgians.  We  held 
no  tag-days.  We  did  not  pass  the  hat  even 
at  the  public  meeting.  We  adopted  none 
of  the  usual  means  of  speeding  up  contri- 
butions. We  simply  announced  the  loca- 
tion of  our  office  and  that  one  of  the  three 
remaining  Parliamentarians  in  San  Fran- 
cisco would  be  there  at  certain  hours,  and 
yet  in  a  few  weeks  we  had  double  our 
quota    to    send    to    Ireland.      The  general 


17 

American  fund  was  under  the  auspices  of 
Cardinal  Gibbons,  of  Baltimore,  of  Car- 
dinal Farley,  of  New  York,  of  Cardinal 
O'Connell,  of  Boston,  and,  among  a  score 
of  other  prelates,  of  Archbishop  Hanna,  of 
San  Francisco.  Mr.  Kelly,  the  well  known 
banker  of  New  York,  was  selected,  with 
an  American  publicist,  to  bring  the  money 
to  Ireland,  and  do  for  the  suffering  people 
of  that  country  what  Mr.  Hoover  was  do- 
ing for  Belgium.  Mr.  Kelly  and  his  com- 
panion were  stopped  at  Liverpool,  treated 
with  every  indignity  by  the  English  of- 
ficials, refused  permission  to  enter  Ireland, 
and  sent  back  ignominiously  to  the  United 
States.  In  consequence  of  this  action  the 
fund  was  transferred  to  the  Archbishop 
of  Dublin,  the  Most  Rev.  William  J. 
Walsh,  who  accepted  the  trust,  and  ap- 
pointed Father  Bowden,  the  rector  of  his 
Cathedral,  to  administer  it. 

2.  The  other  fund  was  started  in  i9i4, 
and  was  for  the  purpose  of  helping  to  buy 
guns  for  the  Irish  Volunteers.  This  fund 
was  taken  up  in  San  Francisco,  and  as  far 
as  I  know,  in  other  places,  under  the  aus- 


i8 


pices  of  various  secular  Irish  societies.  It 
was  collected  in  broad  daylight,  with  full 
publicity  as  to  its  objects,  and  entirely  in 
accordance  with  American  law. 

As  your  recollection  of  the  events  lead- 
ing up  to  the  institution  of  that  fund  ap- 
pears from  your  speech  to  be  rather  hazy 
and  inaccurate,  I  will  recapitulate  them  as 
briefly  as  I  can. 

You  know  as  well  as  any  one  that  the 
English  dearly  love  a  lord,  and  that  their 
government  is  not  a  democracy,  but  an 
oligarchy.  That  well-defined  caste  known 
as  the  ^^gentlemen,"  whether  Whig  or 
Tory,  titled  or  untitled,  monopolize  the 
conduct  of  public  affairs.  Of  late  years 
there  has  been  a  growing  unrest  among 
the  general  population  and  among  the 
labor  unions,  and  the  Liberals  have  for 
political  purposes  taken  up  a  program 
of  reform  mainly  borrowed  from  the  con- 
tinent. To  obstruct  that  program  be- 
cause it  hurts  their  pockets  and  their  priv- 
ileges the  Tories  have,  among  other  means, 
appealed  to  the  Orange  sentiment  in  Ulster. 
We    must    bear    in    mind    that    Ulsteritis 


19 

is  not  endemic  in  Ireland,  but  is  always 
imported  from  England  and  carefully  ex- 
asperated for  purely  English  purposes. 

The  chief  agent  of  the  English  Tories 
in  their  Irish  campaign  was  Sir  Edward 
Carson.  Sir  Edward  Carson  is  a  clever 
lawyer,  and  one  of  the  best  politicians  in 
Parliament.  He  told  the  Orangemen  the 
old  story  that  the  Pope  was  coming  over  to 
Dublin  to  rule  the  country  and  burn  all 
true-blue  Protestants  at  the  stake.  The 
Orangemen  reacted  nobly  to  the  stimulus 
and  subscribed  to  a  '^Solemn  League  and 
Covenant"  against  their  ancient  enemies, 
''popery,  brass  money  and  wooden  shoes," 
which  "Solemn  League  and  Covenant"  Sir 
Edward  melodramatically  signed  in  his 
own  blood. 

Thus  began  the  Ulster  Volunteers,  also 
known  as  Carson's  Volunteers.  A  large 
number  of  men  were  organized  and  drilled 
to  resist  by  force  any  change  in  the  govern- 
ment of  Ireland.  The  vast  resources  of 
Tory  wealth  were  at  Carson's  disposal, 
and  as  it  was  against  the  law  to  bring 
arms  into  Ireland  without  certain  formali- 


20 

ties,  gun  smuggling,  or  ''gun  running,"  as 
it  was  called,  on  a  large  scale  supplied 
arms  and  ammunition.  It  is  asserted  that 
Carson  went  over  to  Germany  to  implore 
the  Kaiser,  as  the  first  Protestant  Prince 
in  Europe,  to  do  for  the  downtrodden 
Orangemen  what  his  namesake  had  done 
for  their  ancestors  at  the  Boyne.  It  is 
claimed  also  that  what  passed  at  that 
interview  made  the  Emperor  believe  that 
England  could  never  come  into  the  war 
and  was  therefore  one  of  the  causes  of  the 
cataclysm.  Anyhow,  he  came  back  and 
not  only  defied  the  Government  to  enforce 
the  Better  Government  of  Ireland  Act,  but 
threatened  to  march  with  his  bullies  and 
carry  fire  and  sword  from  Belfast  to  the 
Cove  of  Cork. 

Then  occurred  what  you  mistakenly  call 
the  ''Ulster  Rebellion."  There  was  no 
"Ulster  Rebellion,"  but  there  was  a  "Cur- 
ragh  Mutiny."  The  Curragh  of  Kildare 
is,  as  you  know,  the  headquarters  of  the 
English  army  of  occupation  in  Ireland 
and  the  seat  of  the  High  Command.  The 
Irish  Ascendancy,  Protestant  and  Catholic, 


21 

have  always  taken  care  to  be  well  repre- 
sented among  the  military  officers.  Cath- 
olic and  Protestant,  the  members  of  the 
Ascendancy — that  is  to  say,  the  upper 
classes — are  so  intermarried  that  almost 
every  one  of  them  is  related  to  every  one 
else.  Carson,  I  have  heard,  has  a  first 
cousin,  mother  superior  of  a  convent,  and 
the  army  was  full  of  officers  related  to  him 
by  blood  or  joined  by  friendship. 

When  it  appeared  inevitable  that  the 
Government  would  have  to  call  on  the 
army  to  enforce  the  law  of  the  land  the 
Curragh  Mutiny  occurred.  The  officers 
formed  a  conspiracy  and,  headed  by  Lord 
French,  offered  their  resignation.  The 
reason  they  gave  for  this  action  was  that 
they  could  not  be  expected  to  fight  against 
their  own  friends  and  relatives,  a  reason, 
by  the  way,  that  a  few  weeks  ago  cost  an 
American  officer  a  sentence  of  twenty-five 
years  in  jail. 

What  happened?  What  happens  in 
England  always  when  the  great  houses 
exert  their  influence  in  the  army?  The 
Government  backed  down  and  the  shame- 


22 

ful  spectacle  was  presented  to  the  civilized 
world  of  a  nation  of  four  millions  left  to 
the  mercy  of  a  horde  of  armed  fanatics. 

What  were  the  mere  Irish  to  do?  What 
would  you  expect  men  to  do  if  they  had 
any  red  blood  in  them?  They  did  what 
San  Francisco  did  more  than  once  in  the 
days  of  the  Vigilantes;  they  did  what  you 
yourself  did  after  the  great  fire.  When 
the  legal  government  ceased  to  function 
you  organized  another  and  called  in  armed 
men  to  keep  order.  If  the  English  Govern- 
ment, which  had  undertaken  the  adminis- 
tration of  Irish  affairs,  could  not  or  would 
not  enforce  its  own  laws,  then  it  was  high 
time  for  Irishmen  to  defend  their  property 
and  their  families  and  themselves. 

It  was  out  of  this  condition  of  affairs 
that  the  Irish  Volunteers  came  into  being, 
spontaneously,  all  over  the  country,  and 
as  it  were,  in  a  night.  The  young  men  of 
Ireland  organized  and  drilled,  and  began 
out  of  their  own  earnings  to  buy  themselves 
arms.  They  adopted  the  tactics  that  Car- 
son had  invented,  and  "gun-running"  was 
soon  in  full  swing.     But  there  was  a  differ- 


23 

ence.  While  Carson  was  importing  arms 
the  Government  looked  the  other  way  and 
the  police  were  conveniently  absent.  When 
the  Irish  began  to  import  arms  the  Govern- 
ment sprang  to  attention  and  all  the  forces 
of  the  Crown  were  used  to  thwart  it.  I 
am  sure  it  did  not  escape  your  notice  that 
on  the  very  eve  of  the  war  women  and 
children  were  shot  down  in  the  streets  of 
Dublin  by  English  soldiers  called  out  to 
prevent  the  gun  running  at  Howth. 

There  was  also  another  difference  be- 
tween the  Carson  volunteers  and  the  Irish 
Volunteers.  Carson  had  behind  him  the 
unlimited  resources  of  the  English  aris- 
tocracy, the  Irish  were  mostly  farmers' 
sons  and  artisans  of  the  towns.  Accord- 
ingly, they  appealed  to  their  kin  outside 
of  Ireland  to  help  them  in  their  dire  dis- 
tress. 

We  in  America  had  a  perfect  right  to 
respond  to  them  under  our  laws.  You,  Mr. 
McEnerney,  in  your  violent  interview  of 
Monday  morning,  make  the  bold  assertion 
that  the  Americans  who  have  been  pro- 
moting the  Sinn  Fein  activities  'Svere  vio- 


24 

lating  the  neutrality  laws  of  this  country 
until  April  6,  i9i7,  and  since  that  date 
their  conduct  has  been  treasonable  to  the 
people  and  Government  of  this  country." 
It  is  not  to  be  thought,  Mr.  McEnerney, 
that  you  would  have  made  so  grave 
an  accusation  without  proof  capable  of 
being  legally  established,  and  I  humbly 
suggest  that  it  is  a  very  curious  kind  of 
patriotism  that  withholds  such  proof  from 
the  proper  authorities. 

Let  me  say,  too,  that  the  Irish  societies 
in  America  were  advised  by  lawyers  every 
whit  as  capable  as  your  learned  self.  Even 
the  man  in  the  street  can  see  that  for  the 
Irish  in  America  to  respond  to  the  call  of 
the  Irish  Volunteers  was  no  violation  of 
the  neutrality  laws.  During  the  period 
before  America  entered  the  war  Americans 
were  sending  money  and  munitions  in  enor- 
mous quantities  to  the  Entente.  I  dis- 
tinctly remember  to  have  seen  German 
Government  bonds  advertised  for  sale  in 
New  York  newspapers.  Why  should  the 
Irish  alone  be  denied  the  privilege  of 
helping  their  own?     Do  you  think  for  one 


25 

minute  that  you  can  persuade  the  people 
of  this  town  to  believe  that  the  exceed- 
ingly active  and  able  Federal  service  w^ould 
not  have  intervened  if  the  law  was  being 
broken  in  broad  daylight?  It  might  be 
illuminating  to  call  to  your  mind  the  fact 
that  the  very  first  persons  to  be  convicted 
of  violating  the  neutrality  laws  in  this  city 
were  violating  them  in  the  interests  of 
England. 

What  was  the  response  in  America  to 
Ireland's  appeal?  The  usual  response  that 
is  given  to  every  Irish  appeal.  The  plain 
people,  out  of  their  meager  store,  gave  a 
little,  the  rich,  the  influential,  the  men 
of  the  class  to  which  you  have  so  labori- 
ously attained  gave  nothing  except  the 
cheap  sneer  about  ''freeing  Ireland"  by 
passing  the  hat.  If  you,  Mr.  McEnerney, 
and  men  like  you,  were  as  much  interested 
then  as  you  claim  to  be  now  in  Irish  afifairs; 
if  you  had  taken  the  trouble  to  acquaint 
yourselves  with  Irish  conditions;  if  you 
had  recognized  the  justice  of  the  Irish 
demand,  and  had  taken  a  strong  stand  for 
fair  play,  we  should  certainly  have  been 


26 


spared  the  bloody  aftermath,  and  you 
would  not  have  to  bemoan  to-day  the 
mistakes  and  disasters  of  the  past  four 
years. 

What  was  the  response  of  Mr.  T.  P. 
O'Connor's  party  to  the  Volunteers'  appeal; 
Ask  him.  He  will  not  deny  that  in  the 
beginning  they  ignored  the  Volunteers.  He 
will  admit  that  when  the  movement  was 
sweeping  'the  country  like  a  prairie  fire 
the  politicians  grew  suspicious  and  afraid. 
It  is  a  matter  of  historical  fact  that  Mr. 
Redmond,  thinking  not  of  the  safety  of  the 
country,  but  of  his  political  fences,  de- 
manded control  of  the  Volunteers.  In  order 
to  satisfy  Mr.  Redmond,  the  Redmondite 
Party  was  given  equal  representation  on 
the  governing  body  of  the  Volunteers.  From 
the  very  beginning  the  Redmondite  nomi- 
nees showed  that  their  sole  object  was  to 
disrupt  the  Volunteers.  They  succeeded. 
Two  bodies  were  formed,  one  under  the 
control  of  the  Parliamentarians,  the  other 
under  the  adherents  of  the  Sinn  Fein.  Mr. 
Redmond  bought  for  his  crowd  a  cargo  of 
old   rifles   for  which   suitable   ammunition 


27 

had  not  been  manufactured  in  twenty  years. 
This,  apparently,  is  the  "gun  running"  in 
which  Mr.  T.  P.  O'Connor  participated. 
The  last  thing  in  the  world  Mr.  Redmond 
or  Mr.  T.  P.  O'Connor  wanted  was  to 
see  Ireland  armed.  One  by  one  his  com- 
panies ceased  to  drill,  and  in  a  short  time 
the  only  Volunteers  in  Ireland  were  those 
that  professed  and  practiced  the  doctrines 
of  Sinn  Fein. 

When  these  Irish  Volunteers  went  to  buy 
guns  they  naturally  sought  them  in  the  only 
market  open  to  them — that  is  to  say,  Ger- 
many. How  they  got  into  communication 
with  Germany  I  am  not  informed.  If  they 
used  American  intermediaries  to  deal  with 
Germany  they  certainly  had  as  much 
right  as  the  English  had  to  use  American 
agents  to  do  British  business.  One  thing  I 
notice  in  this  war  is  that  in  spite  of  all 
the  precautions  taken  by  all  the  nations, 
belligerent  and  neutral,  any  person  who 
wants  to  go  from  one  country  to  another 
seems  to  be  able,  generally,  to  make  the 
journey  at  will. 

An  attempt  has  been  made  by  Mr.  T.  P. 


28 


O'Connor  and  his  kind  to  locate  the  main- 
spring of  all  the  Irish  operations  in  the 
United  States.  Nothing  could  be  farther 
from  the  truth.  Coincident  with  the  an- 
nouncement of  Mr.  T.  P.  O'Connor's  de- 
scent on  San  Francisco,  some  of  the  papers 
published  an  old  letter  of  Mr.  John  Devoy 
of  New  York.  That  letter  had  been  care- 
fuly  edited  by  some  one  skilled  in  the 
suggestio  falsi.  The  information  in  the 
document  was  neither  new  nor  startling, 
but  the  impression  conveyed  was  that  the 
organizations  to  which  Mr.  Devoy  belongs 
were  even  now  in  intimate  touch  with  the 
Germans  and  assisting  them  in  their  de- 
signs on  Ireland. 

Of  course,  there  is  not  a  scintilla  of  truth 
in  the  charge.  I  am  proud  of  the  friend- 
ship of  John  Devoy.  I  have  long  admired 
the  self-sacrifice  and  devotion  he  has  given 
to  a  cause  that  brought  him  nothing  but 
poverty  and  opprobrium  and  that  in  the 
vicissitudes  of  a  long  career  must  have  so 
often  seemed  hopeless.  Yet  high  as  I  esti- 
mate his  qualities  of  heart  and  head,  I 
know  he  is  not  a  superman.     Yet  a  super- 


29 

man  he  must  needs  be,  if  noted  and 
watched  as  he  is,  he  could  carry  on,  if  he 
would  stoop  to  it,  treasonable  practices  in 
war  time  or  in  any  time,  in  face  of  the 
ability  and  the  sleepless  vigilance  of  the 
United  States  Secret  Service  and  in  spite, 
above  all,  of  the  oft-manifested  desires  in 
certain  quarters  to  get  him. 

The  explanation  of  Mr.  Devoy's  letter  is 
very  simple.  In  the  Easter  time  of  i9i6 
scanty  cablegrams  informed  us  that  Sir 
Roger  Casement  had  landed  in  Ireland 
from  Germany  and  had  been  arrested,  that 
a  ship  called  the  Aud,  laden  with  muni- 
tions, had  been  captured  by  the  English 
and  subsequently  sunk  by  her  sailors,  that 
the  Irish  Republic  had  been  proclaimed  in 
Dublin,  and  that  the  capital  was  held  by 
Connolly's  Citizen  Army  and  the  Irish 
Volunteers.  The  common  interpretation 
given  these  cablegrams  at  the  time  was  that 
Germany  had  fitted  out  an  expedition  to 
Ireland,  put  it  in  charge  of  Sir  Roger  Case- 
ment, that  the  whole  thing  was  concocted 
by  the  Irish  extremists  in  the  United  States 


30 

and  that  it  was  foiled  by  the  watchfulness 
of  the  British  Government. 

Of  course,  if  we  were  to  reflect  on  the 
proposition  that  Germany  should  under- 
take the  invasion  of  Ireland  with  one  small 
ship,  on  which  there  was  not  a  single  Ger- 
man military  man,  under  the  command  of 
a  civilian,  and  at  the  instigation  of  other 
civilians,  three  thousand  miles  away,  even 
the  most  dense  could  see  how  improbable 
the  interpretation  was  in  the  case  of  strate- 
gists who  may  be  the  worst  you  want  to  call 
them,  but  certainly  are  not  absurd. 

The  facts  in  the  case  that  Mr.  Devoy 
wanted  known  are  as  follow: 

I.  The  arms  on  the  Aud  were  not  sent 
by  the  German  Government,  but  wxre 
bought  for  the  Volunteers  with  Volunteer 
money.  Where  they  were  bought  I  have 
not  yet  learned.  The  affair  was  simply 
gun-running  on  a  large  scale  for  the  benefit 
of  the  country  west  of  the  Shannon.  It  is 
precisely  the  same  kind  of  operation  in 
which  Carson  was  constantly  engaged  and 
in  which  Mr.  T.  P.  O'Connor  now  boasts 
of   having   participated.      How   it  was   to 


31 

have  been  carried  out,  and  the  chapter  of 
accidents  by  which  it  failed — are  they  not 
written  in  the  dozens  of  books  published 
within  the  past  two  years? 

2.  The  coming  of  Sir  Roger  Casement 
was  his  own  adventure,  and  he  did  not  come 
on  the  Aud.  His  plans,  apparently,  at  times 
ran  counter  to  and  at  times  clean  across 
those  of  the  people  in  Ireland.  His  ideas 
at  times  were  of  so  preposterous  a  nature 
that  his  American  friends  were  at  their 
wits'  end.  Still,  it  is  not  for  us  to  judge  or 
condemn  him.  For,  whatever  mistakes  of 
head  he  made  he  has  paid  the  ultimate 
price.  His  name  is  cleansed  in  his  own 
blood,  and  his  proud  place  in  the  Irish 
heart  is  between  Emmet  and  Wolfe  Tone. 

3.  What  are  the  inside  facts  of  the  Dub- 
lin rising  I  don't  suppose  any  man  living 
to-day  knows  except  John  MacNeil  and 
De  Valera.  De  Valera,  who  took  part  in 
the  rising,  vouches  for  the  good  faith  and 
patriotism  of  John  MacNeil,  who  opposed 
it,  and  so  did  Patrick  Pearse.  This  one 
thing  I  do  know — that  whatever  decisions 
were    taken    concerning   that    rising,    were 


32 

taken  in  Ireland  by  Irishmen  for  Irish 
causes  and  the  men  who  made  the  decision 
proved  their  right  to  make  it  by  the  giving 
of  their  lives. 

When  the  news  came  to  us  in  America, 
deprived  as  we  were  of  accurate  informa- 
tion, we  could  only  act  on  general  princi- 
ples. We  took  the  true  American  attitude 
of  standing  by  those  who  were  fighting  for 
freedom.  From  the  foundation  of  this  Re- 
public, America  has  in  every  generation 
sent  out  her  sympathy  to  every  nation 
rightly  struggling  to  be  free.  There  would 
be  many  to  criticise  and  condemn.  We 
took  the  stand  that  when  men  are  willing 
to  give  their  lives  for  their  native  land  the 
American  tradition  is  to  approve  their 
cause. 

So  much  for  the  period  before  the  United 
States  entered  the  great  war.  From  April 
6,  i9i7,  the  Irish  societies  have  confined 
their  activities  to  the  program  of  President 
Wilson  for  the  self-determination  of  all 
nations,  small  as  well  as  great.  The  Friends 
of  Irish  Freedom,  of  which  I  have  the 
honor   to   be    State    President,    ordered    at 


33 

their  first  convention  that  all  moneys  col- 
lected by  the  organization  should  be  held 
in  California  during  the  war.  We  are 
using  our  constitutional  right  to  petition 
the  President  and  the  Congress  that  this 
country,  which  has  openly  espoused  the 
cause  of  Belgium  and  of  Serbia,  should 
not  forget  the  oldest  nation  in  Europe.  If 
it  be  a  crime,  Mr.  McEnerney,  to  mention 
the  name  of  Ireland  under  the  folds  of  the 
American  flag  that  gleams  with  the  blood 
of  so  many  Irishmen,  then  we  are  guilty, 
and  you  can  make  the  worst  of  it. 

The  trouble  with  you,  Mr.  McEnerney, 
is  that  you  are  not  an  American.  Your 
body  may  be  American,  but  your  spirit  has 
ceased  to  be  American.  You  sneer  at  the 
leaders  of  the  Sinn  Fein  as  idealists  and 
poets,  but  what  do  you  know  of  idealism 
or  poetry?  To  your  practical  mind  the 
one  star  by  which  men  should  steer  is  the 
star  of  success;  but,  Mr.  McEnerney, 
America  is  the  first-born  of  idealism,  and 
there  is  more  truth  in  poetry  than  in  all 
your  ledgers  and  law  books.  You  will  not 
understand,  but  the   people  of   San   Eran- 


34 

Cisco  will  understand  what  Patrick  Pearse 
wrote  when  the  mantle  of  the  prophet  de- 
scended upon  him,  and  he  put  this  keen  in 
the  mouth  of  his  mother: 

I  do  not  grudge  them,  Lord,  I  do  not  grudge 

My  two  strong  sons  that  I  have  seen  go  out 

To  break  their  strength  and  die,  they  and  a  few, 

In  bloody  protest  for  a  glorious  thing; 

They  shall  be  spoken  of  among  their  people, 

The  generations  shall  remember  them, 

And  call  them  blessed — 

The  little  names  that  were  familiar  once 

Round  my  dead  hearth. 

Lord,  Thou  art  hard  on  mothers ; 

We  suffer  in  their  coming  and  their  going; 

And  tho'  I  grudge  them  not  I  weary,  weary 

Of  the  long  sorrow — and  yet  I  have  my  joy  : 

My  sons  were  faithful  and  they  fought. 


III. 


Having  disposed  of  those  questions  of 
fact,  Mr.  McEnerney,  permit  me  now  to 
consider  the  "inexorable  logic"  concealed 
in  the  hangman's  bag  you  flourish  in  our 
face.  If  that  is  the  kind  of  logic  you  win 
cases  with,  I  am  not  surprised  that  so  many 


35 

lawyers  die  rich,  and  I  am  almost  tempted 
to  try  at  the  trade  myself. 

Now,  to  bring  the  ''inexorable  logic"  by 
which  you  "make  out"  our  "disaffection, 
disloyalty  and  treason"  to  the  nearest  ap- 
proach to  the  syllogistic  form  of  which  it  is 
capable,  your  argument  runs  thus: 

THEOREM  No.  i. 

Major.  Anything  that  weakens  the 
efficiency  of  the  British  forces  in  the  war 
is  treason  to  the  United  States. 

Minor.  But  the  claim  for  the  establish- 
ment of  an  Irish  Republic  weakens  the 
British  forces  in  the  war. 

Conclusion.  Therefore,  the  claim  for 
the  establishment  of  an  Irish  Republic  is 
treason  to  the  United  States.    Q.  E.  D. 

Of  course,  you  know  that  this  logical 
big  gun  was  forged  in  John  Dillon's  fac- 
tory. It  was  especially  designed  for  long 
distance  work,  and  was  trained  to  do  terri- 
ble execution  on  the  Irish  in  the  United 
States.  The  trouble,  however,  with  big 
guns  is  that  they  are  often  more  destructive 
to  their  users  than  to  the  enemy.    Have  you 


36 

not  already  sensed  the  recoil  there  is  in  this 
"inexorable  logic"? 

You  yourself  admit  that  the  condition  of 
public  opinion  in  Ireland  is  "bordering  on 
madness."  "The  one  bright  spot"  has  be- 
come somehow  a  very  sore  spot,  indeed. 
You  confess  that  "all  over  the  world  men 
of  Irish  origin  are  in  a  state  of  exaspera- 
tion and  fury."  You  concede  that  this 
condition  is  "not  without  justification,"  and 
you  very  frankly  tell  us  that  the  justifica- 
tion is  "the  breakdowns  in  the  power  of  the 
English  Government  respecting  matters 
affecting  Irish  rights."  You  go  farther. 
You  fix  the  responsibility.  You  lay  it 
squarely  on  the  shoulders  of  Carson,  of 
Balfour,  of  Smith  and  of  all  those  who 
participated  in  what  you  call  the  Ulster 
Rebellion. 

You  have  not  forgotten,  I  am  sure,  the 
old  maxim :  Causa  causae,  causa  causati. 
The  cause  of  certain  conditions  is  responsi- 
ble for  the  effects  that  flow  from  those 
conditions.  Whatever  effects  flow  from 
the  conditions  of  Irish  disaffection  and 
American  exasperation  are  to  be  placed  to 


37 

the  account  of  Carson,  Balfour  and  their 
confederates. 

His  praemissis,  as  they  say  in  the  Schools, 
let  us  go  back  to  your  "inexorable  logic." 

THEOREM  No.  2. 

Anything  that  weakens  the  efficiency  of 
the  British  forces  in  the  war  is  treason  to 
the  United  States. 

But  the  conduct  of  Carson,  Balfour  and 
company  weakens  the  efficiency  of  the 
British  forces  by  causing  disaffection  in 
Ireland  and  exasperation  in  America. 

Therefore,  the  conduct  of  Carson,  Bal- 
four and  company  is  treason  to  the  United 
States.     Q.  E.  D. 

But  I  notice  the  English  took  Carson 
into  the  Cabinet,  and  that  Balfour  was 
received  by  Congress,  and  feted  by  the 
President?  Do  you  dare  insinuate  that 
England  is  guilty  of  treason  to  the  United 
States  or  that  Congress  and  the  President 
are  fautors  of  traitors?  Just  see  where 
your  "inexorable  logic"  lands  you. 

Let  us  try  again,  for  there  are  inexhaust- 
ible possibilities  in  this  "inexorable  logic" 


38 

of  yours,  especially  if  you  stimulate  it  with 
a  Goclenian  sorites. 

As  the  war  developed  it  was  discovered 
that  the  great  want  of  the  Allies  was  muni- 
tions. Heroic  measures  supplied  the  want. 
To-day,  to  judge  by  their  statesmen's  utter- 
ances, their  great  want  is  men.  Heroic 
measures  are  proposed.  Now,  you  know,  for 
you  have  alluded  to  it,  that  there  are  in  Ire- 
land about  five  hundred  thousand  potential 
soldiers,  the  best  military  material  in  the 
world.  They  won't  enlist,  and  therefore 
to  get  them  they  must  be  conscripted  or,  as 
we  say,  drafted.  But  Mr.  Joseph  Devlin, 
the  colleague  of  your  distinguished  guest, 
Mr.  T.  P.  O'Connor,  declares  that  he  will 
resist  conscription  to  the  last  drop  of  his 
blood.  The  reassembling  of  the  English 
Parliament,  after  the  Easter  recess,  was 
marked  by  a  riot  precipitated  by  another 
colleague  of  Mr.  O'Connor  at  the  mention 
of  conscription  in  Ireland.  The  Redmond- 
ite  Party,  of  which  Mr.  T.  P.  O'Connor 
is  the  representative,  is  officially  opposed  to 
conscription.  Mr.  T.  P.  O'Connor  is  in 
San  Francisco  to  obtain  funds  to  back  up 


39 

the  Redmondite  Party.  Every  favor 
shown  Mr.  O'Connor  militates  against 
Irish  conscription.  Every  cent  given  him 
will  be  used  to  fight  Irish  conscription. 
Is  it  necessary  for  me  to  expand  this  "in- 
exorable logic"  for  you,  Mr.  McEnerney? 

THEOREM  No.  3. 

A. 

Anything  that  weakens  the  efficiency  of 
the  British  forces. in  the  war  is  treason  to 
the  United  States. 

But  the  absence  of  conscription  in  Ire- 
lands  weakens  the  efficiency  of  the  British 
forces  in  the  war. 

Therefore,  the  absence  of  conscription  in 
Ireland  is  treason  to  the  United  States. 
Q.  E.  D. 

B. 

The  absence  of  conscription  in  Ireland  is 
treason  to  the  United  States. 

But  Mr.  T.  P.  O'Connor  and  his  party 
are  responsible  for  the  absence  of  conscrip- 
tion in  Ireland. 

Therefore,  Mr.  T.  P.  O'Connor  and  his 


40 

party    are    responsible    for   treason    to    the 
United  States.-    Q.  E.  D. 

C. 

Mr.  T.  P.  O'Connor  and  his  party  are 
responsible  for  treason  to  the  United 
States. 

But  Mr.  Garret  McEnerney  of  San 
Francisco  is  backing  up  Mr.  T.  P.  O'Con- 
nor and  his  party. 

Therefore,  Mr.  Garret  McEnerney  ol 
San  Francisco  is  responsible  for  treason  to 
the  United  States.    Q.  E.  D. 

After  all,  it  would  seem  that  the  rope 
of  "inexorable  logic"  to  be  used  in  your 
ratiocinational  lynching  bee  has  got  tan- 
gled round  its  owner's  throat  and  that  it  is 
Mr.  Garret  McEnerney  that  should  be 
operated  on  daybreak.    Q.  E.  F. 

Is  it  necessary  for  me,  Mr.  McEnerney, 
to  remind  you  that  the  finest  fighters  devel- 
oped in  this  war  were  the  young  Austra- 
lians? They  have  won  for  a  new  and 
peaceful  commonwealth  a  glory  that  the 
most  ancient  and  most  warlike  nations 
might  well  envy.    These  veterans  are  fight- 


41 

ing  now  side  by  side  with  our  boys  in 
France.  Is  it  necessary  to  remind  you  that 
Australia  rejected  conscription,  not  once, 
but  twice?  Is  it  necessary  to  remind  you 
that  the  most  powerful  opponent  of  con- 
scription was  the  Archbishop  of  Mel- 
bourne, Dr.  Mannix?  Is  it  necessary  to 
remind  you  that  the  Australians  at  the 
front  rejected  conscription  as  thoroughly 
as  those  at  home?  What  kind  of  service 
to  your  country  are  you  rendering,  Mr. 
McEnerney,  when  with  your  ''inexorable 
logic"  you  are  teaching  our  boys  to  look  on 
their  companions  in  arms  as  traitors  to 
America? 

But  if  your  ''inexorable  logic"  is  fatal  to 
the  establishment  of  an  Irish  Republic, 
what  will  it  not  do  to  the  establishment  of 
a  Russian  Republic?  After  all,  Russia  is 
the  only  one  of  the  original  Entente  that 
accomplished  anything  worth  while  in  this 
war.  She  saved  the  West  Front  in  the  be- 
ginning, and  she  almost  put  Austria  out  of 
the  fighting.  Her  defection  is  the  heaviest 
blow  yet  delivered  to  the  Allies,  and  it  is 
not  at  all  certain  that  future  historians  may 


42 

not  consider  it  the  deciding  event  of  the 
war.  Compared  to  the  actual  defection  of 
Russia  following  the  establishment  of  a 
Russian  Republic,  the  hypothetical  defec- 
tion of  Ireland  following  the  establishment 
of  an  Irish  Republic  would  be  a  negligible 
quantity. 

Yet  how  do  the  Allies,  how  does  our 
own  President,  deal  with  Russia  to-day? 
Have  they  had  recourse  to  the  verbal  vit- 
riol which  you  pour  so  liberally  on  even 
a  poor  pious  wish  that  Ireland  might  enjoy 
the  blessings  of  liberty?  Evidently,  your 
''inexorable  logic"  has  few  charms  for  the 
President  or  the  country.  Mr.  Wilson  is 
most  sympathetic  with  Russia,  and  holds 
to  his  sympathies  even  when  some  Russians 
answer  his  good  wishes  with  very  scant 
courtesy.  The  Press,  while  mildly  critical 
of  the  defection,  is  unanimous  that  we 
should  keep  on  good  terms  with  the  new 
condition  of  things  and  assist  the  Russians 
in  reorganizing  their  country.  Everybody 
knows  the  nature  of  the  international  influ- 
ence that  brought  about  the  failure,  of  the 
Root  mission,   but  nobody  hears   the   "in- 


43 

exorable  logic"  applied  to  the  Trotzkys  of 
New  York.  That  kind  of  logic  appears  to 
be  reserved  for  the  crucifixion  of  the  Irish, 
to  be  administered  in  a  sponge  dipped  in 
vinegar  and  gall. 

The  fact  of  the  matter,  Mr.  McEner- 
ney,  is  that  your  ''inexorable  logic"  is  in- 
spissated humbug.  I  know  it  is  the  un- 
pardonable sin  among  logicians  to  deny  a 
man's  major,  but  I  am  compelled  not  only 
to  deny  your  major,  but  to  respue  your 
subsumptum.  What  is  the  principle  that, 
consciously  or  unconsciously,  is  back  of 
your  mind  in  all  your  argumentation?  It 
is  the  diabolical  doctrine  that  the  end  justi- 
fies the  means  and  that  all  things  are  law- 
ful to  the  State.  While  you  have  been 
fighting  Kultur  with  your  body,  Kultur 
has  made  conquest  of  your  mind.  You 
remember  how  Bismarck  fought  the 
Church  after  the  Franco-Prussian  war 
because  he  found  that  Catholics  still 
believed  in  Christ's  command:  ''Render 
therefore  unto  Caesar  the  things  that  are 
Caesar's,  and  unto  God  the  things  that  are 
God's."     He     called     his     campaign     the 


44 

Kulturkampf,  the  fight  for  civilization. 
He  failed  in  his  attempt,  but  his  ideas  did 
not  die.  On  the  contrary,  they  increased 
and  multiplied.  Every  year  since  they 
have  been  spreading  in  all  countries.  Again 
and  again  I  have  pointed  out  how  they 
were  gaining  ground  even  in  individualistic 
America.  The  war  has  brought  their  tri- 
umph in  a  rush.  In  the  debates  in  Con- 
gress the  plea  is  made  that  even  our  funda- 
mental Constitution  should  not  be  allowed 
to  stand  in  the  way  of  national  necessity. 
Among  the  people  at  large  it  is  boldly 
proclaimed  that  such  little  things  as  reli- 
gion, friendship,  hospitality,  truth  and  fair 
dealing  are  not  to  be  considered  when  it  is 
a  question  of  national  success. 

It  is  this  principle  that  inspires  your 
major,  and  your  major  is  not  true.  It  is 
not  true  that  anything  that  weakens  the 
Allies  is  treason  to  America.  The  case  of 
Russia  is  the  proof.  The  relations  be- 
tween nations,  as  you  ought  to  know,  Mr. 
McEnerney,  are  not  governed  by  ''inexor- 
able logic."  The  relations  between  nations 
are    governed    by    their    foreign    policies, 


45 

their  public  aims  and  their  domestic  neces- 
sities. It  is  quite  thinkable  that  the  weak- 
ening of  the  Allies  by  the  defectioa  of 
Russia  might  be  more  than  made  up  to 
America  by  the  successful  establishment 
of  a  great  democratic  State  in  Europe  and 
Asia.  The  rigorous  enforcement  of  your 
"inexorable  logic"  might  easily  throw 
Russia  into  the  arms  of  Germany,  and  do 
more  damage  to  America  than  could  be 
done  even  by  the  breaking  of  the  battle 
line  in  France.  Come  out  of  your  logical 
fog,  Mr.  McEnerney,  and  see  things  as 
they  are — even  as  the  men  in  Washington 
have  to  see  them. 

Though  it  is  a  work  of  scholastic  super- 
erogation in  the  circumstances  to  deny 
your  minor,  I  might  ask,  how  do  you  know 
that  the  establishment  of  an  Irish  Republic 
would  weaken  the  Allies?  My  own  opin- 
ion is  that  nothing  would  so  strengthen  the 
Allies  as  the  immediate  establishment  of  an 
Irish  Republic.  I  have  tried  to  keep  in 
touch  with  Irish  sentiment,  and  I  am  con- 
vinced that  Ireland  is  not  pro-German  or 
that  the  Irish  have  any  love  for  Prussian- 


46 

ism,  or  that  they  are  anxious  to  exchange 
the  devil  they  know  for  the  devil  they 
don't  know.  Your  quotation  from  Arthur 
Griffith  puts  the  situation  in  a  nutshell. 
The  desire  of  the  Irish  to  see  England 
weakened  is  inspired  simply  and  solely  by 
the  desire  of  the  Irish  to  be  masters  of 
their  own  house  and  by  the  fact  that  Eng- 
land unjustly  holds  on  to  the  key.  Remove 
the  injustice,  and  at  once  the  effect  will 
cease  to  be. 

Then  consider  what  would  be  the  result 
of  the  establishment  of  an  Irish  Republic 
in  every  country  in  the  world.  When  you 
were  speaking  Monday  night  you  were 
afraid.  I  that  am  writing  this  am  afraid. 
We  are  both  afraid  of  the  same  thing.  We 
are  not  afraid  that  we  have  not  enough 
munitions,  money  or  men  to  see  this  war 
through.  We  are  not  afraid  of  the  courage 
of  our  soldiers  or  the  skill  of  our  leaders 
to  assure  us  victory.  But  we  are  afraid  of 
the  morale  of  our  people.  You  see  it 
threatened  because  of  Irish  exasperation 
and  fury.  I  see  it  threatened  because  of 
the  economic  revolution.     Do  not  imagine 


47 

that  the  masses  of  America  to-day  are  any 
more  immune  from  ideas  coming  out  of 
Russia  than  they  were  a  century  and  a 
third  ago  from  ideas  coming  out  of  France. 
A  whole  nation  can  be  infected  in  an  in- 
credibly short  time.  Now,  you  know  as 
well  as  I  do  that  the  saving  salt  of  the 
American  mass  is  the  Irish  element.  That 
element  has  even  against  its  own  interests 
always  stood  for  conservatism.  Remove 
from  that  element  the  unrest  caused  by  the 
exasperation  and  fury  at  England's  misrule 
in  Ireland,  and  you  remove  a  cause  that 
with  accelerated  velocity  is  driving  men 
with  Irish  names  to  the  side  of  the  eco- 
nomic revolution. 

Consider  what  an  effect  the  establish- 
ment of  an  Irish  Republic  would  have  in 
Germany.  Our  President  has  gone  over 
the  heads  of  the  German  Government  and 
has  appealed  directly  to  the  German  peo- 
ple to  rally  to  the  cause  of  democracy.  The 
German  Government  has  said  with  '^in- 
exorable  logic"  to  the  German  people, 
''Look  at  England  and  Ireland."  As  you 
put  it  yourself,   ''England  is  solicitous  of 


48 

the  fortunes  of  small  nations  in  the  abstract, 
but  indififerent  to  them  in  the  concrete." 
Let  Mr.  Wilson  be  able  to  say  to  the  Ger- 
man people,  Behold  the  proof  of  our  sin- 
cerity, the  establishment  of  the  Irish  Re- 
public, and  I  believe  the  German  people 
would  respond  to  his  hopes  and  give  him 
that  security  for  the  world's  peace  that  he 
demands.  Ireland  would  have  performed 
her  noblest  service  to  mankind,  and  would 
have  done  for  a  broken  civilization  what 
her  children  did  in  the  old  days  for  the 
shattered  civilization  of  Rome. 

And  now,  Mr.  McEnerney,  to  come  to 
an  end.  When  I  read  your  speech  at  your 
banquet  I  was  so  indignant  and  ashamed 
that  I  said  to  myself,  Let  the  considera- 
tion of  this  go  over  for  a  few  days.  I 
wanted  to  think  of  the  whole  matter  in 
cold  blood.  In  the  interim  I  racked  my 
brains  for  arguments  that  might  excuse  me 
from  answering  you.  But  the  challenge 
was  too  direct.  I  began  my  letter  in  a 
spirit  of  forbearance  and  charity.  Con- 
trary to  my  habit,  I  wrote  it  slowly  and 
with  much   revision.     I   looked  upon  you 


49 

as  a  lawyer  whom  a  client  had  grossly  mis- 
led. I  tried  to  keep  before  my  mind  that 
my  object  was  to  inform,  not  rebuke.  But 
after  reading  your  answer  to  the  resolu- 
tions of  the  Irish  Societies,  I  felt  you  had 
put  yourself  outside  the  pale  of  argument. 
What  my  pen  hurried  to  write  I  have  torn 
up.  It  was  drenched  in  bitterness.  I  will 
simply  say  now  that  I  do  not  recognize  you 
as  an  authority  on  American  patriotism,  I 
do  not  accept  you  as  a  judge  in  Irish 
affairs. 

I  turn  from  you  to  the  people  of  San 
Francisco,  to  the  people  of  California,  and 
I  ask  them  to  judge  between  you  and  us. 
They  surely  do  not  take  us  for  traitors. 
As  they  read  the  casualty  lists  they  can 
tell  whose  sons  and  brothers  are  at  the 
front — the  sons  and  the  brothers  of  the 
members  of  the  Irish  Societies.  This  very 
day  I  draped  the  American  flag  over  the 
empty  coffin  of  one  of  our  lads  whose  bones 
repose  on  the  field  of  honor  "over  there." 
These  are  the  boys  that  in  my  ministry  of 
over  a  generation,  as  generations  are  count- 
ed among  men — these  are  the  boys  I  begot 


so 

unto  Christ  in  Baptism,  these  are  the  boys 
I  prepared  for  their  First  Communion  and 
Confirmation,  these  are  the  boys  whose 
sacred  confidences  I  received,  these  are  the 
boys  whose  letters  come  to  me  literally 
from  all  over  the  world,  and  whose  simple, 
manly  sentences  I  read,  not  without  tears, 
thanking  my  people,  my  priests  and  me 
because  out  of  our  labor  and  sacrifice  and 
our  slight  resources  we  have  been  able  to 
send  them  some  comfort  for  body  or  soul 
to  remind  them  that  the  home  folks  are 
thinking  of  them,  and  the  neighbors,  and 
the  old  parish — is  there  any  man  so  heart- 
less as  to  believe  that  my  people  or  I  would 
for  a  hundred  Irelands  or  ten  thousand 
Germanys  do  or  say  or  even  think  anything 
that  would  harm  a  hair  of  their  heads— 
they  who  are  bone  of  our  bone  and  flesh  of 
our  flesh,  our  joy  and  our  crown? 

PETER  C.  YORKE. 

San  Francisco,  April  lo,  i9i8. 


SI 
APPENDIX 


SAN  FEANCISCO  EXAMINER,  APRIL  2,  1918. 

In  an  address  introducing  T.  P.  O'Connor  to  the  guests, 
and  explaining  the  motif  for  the  banquet  on  April  1,  Mr. 
McEnerney  said: 

Parnell,  Davitt,  John  E.  Redmond,  T.  P.  O'Connor 
and  John  Dillon  have  been  the  conspicuous  leaders  in 
Irish  affairs  in  the  last  forty  years.  Of  these  five 
leaders  but  two  survive,  and  one  of  them  is  the  distin- 
guished   guest    of    this    evening. 

Mr.  0  'Connor  is  in  this  country  representing  the 
Nationalist  Party,  with  the  object  of  laying  the  condi- 
tion of  Irish  affairs  before  the  American  public.  As 
we  know,  the  Parliamentary  representation  of  Ireland 
is,  say,  103  seats.  Of  these  the  Tories  hold  18  seats — 
Ulster  electing  16  members  and  Trinity  College,  Dublin, 
electing  two  members.  The  group  headed  by  Mr.  Wil- 
liam O'Brien  accounts  for  nine  seats.  Four  seats 
are  difficult  of  classification,  and  the  remaining  72  seats 
are  divided — 68  seats  held  by  the  Nationalist  Party  and 
4   seats  held  by  the  Sinn  Fein  party. 

Mr.  O  'Connor  arrived  in  America  in  June  last,  with 
one  of  his  colleagues  of  the  Nationalist  party,  and 
came  at  the  publicly  announced  request  of  Mr.  Red- 
mond, then  leader,  whose  desire  in  the  matter  was 
supplemented  by  the  request  of  Mr.  Dillon,  who  suc- 
ceeded to  the  leadership  of  the  Nationalist  Party  upon 
the    occasion    of    Mr.    Redmond's    recent    death. 

Mr.  O'Connor  is  here,  therefore,  not  representing  any 
matter  personal  to  himself,  but  representing  the  Nation- 
alist Party,  which  has  been  the  voice  of  Ireland  for  a 
time  running  back  to  before  Parnell. 

It  is  hardly  necessary,  though  of  interest,  to  recall 
that  Mr.  O'Connor's  Parliamentary  career  has  ex- 
tended over  a  period  of  thirty-eight  years;  that  he  was 
elected  first  in  1880  from  the  constituency  of  Galway, 
and  held  that  seat  until  1885,  when  he  was  elected 
for  both  Galway  and  the  Scotland  Division  of  Liver- 
pool. He  then  exercised  his  choice  between  these  two 
constituencies    by    becoming    the    representative    of    the 


52 

Liverpool  constituency,  and  from  that  time  to  this— 
thirty-five  years — Mr,  O'Connor  has  been  a  member  of 
Parliament  representing  that  constituency,  against  a 
contest  at  every  Parliamentary  election  held  in  that 
third  of  a  century.  He  holds  the  unique  distinction  of 
being  the  only  member  of  the  Nationalist  Party  repre- 
senting any  constituency  in  England,  Scotland  or 
Wales;  and  I  may  add  that  his  constituency  contains 
more  men  of  Irish  origin  than  many  of  the  constitu- 
encies in  Ireland  itself. 

It  is  a  matter  of  interest  that  for  the  first  thirty-four 
years  of  Mr.  O'Connor 's, Parliamentary  career  no  salary 
was  attached  to  the  office,  and  that  for  the  last  four 
yBars  the  salary  has  been  £500,  or  $2500,  per  annum; 
and  furthermore  of  interest  that  his  constituency  is 
known  as  the  Scotland  Division,  Liverpool,  for  the  rea- 
son that  it  is  intersected  or  bounded  by  one  of  the 
great  streets  of  Liverpool  known  as  Scotland  Eoad. 

So  much  for  Mr.  O  'Connor 's  Parliamentary  career. 

For  thirty-six  years,  and  without  a  contest,  Mr.  O'Con- 
nor has  been  the  president  of  the  United  Irish  League 
of  Great  Britain,  having  upwards  of  300  branches  and 
an  enrolled  membership  of  more  than  two  and  a  half 
million  men  of  Irish  birth   or  Irish  origin. 

Toleration  is  Spirit  of  Democrat. 

This  intimate  connection  with  Irish  affairs  for  so 
long  a  time  should  have  insured  Mr.  O  'Connor  welcome 
and  hospitality  from  men  of  Irish  origin  everywhere,  in 
total  disregard  of  differences  of  opinion  or  wide  separa- 
tion in  respect  of  economic,  industrial  and  political  ques- 
tions which   affect  the   future   of  Ireland. 

In  ordinary  times  and  in  ordinary  circumstances  it 
would  have  been  a  great  pleasure  to  me  to  participate  in 
a  testimonial  to  Mr.  O'Connor  in  recognition  of  the 
great  distinction  which  he  has  achieved  in  journalism 
in  a  career  spread  over  fifty  years  and  in  recognition 
of  his  loyal  and  disinterested  service  in  support  of 
justice  for  Ireland  at  the  hands  of  the  English  Govern- 
ment, exemplified  by  a  public  career  both  in  and  out 
of  Parliament,  spread  over  a  period  of  nearly  forty 
years. 

I  say  that  in  ordinary  times  and  in  ordinary  circum- 
stances  the    fulfillment    of   so   obvious   an    obligation    of 


53 

both  gratitude  and  hospitality  would  have  afforded 
me  immeasurable  pleasure.  But,  in  the  present  circum- 
stances, I  have  not  been  controlled  by  considerations  of 
pleasure;  I  have  assumed  the  responsibility  of  this  occa- 
sion simply  out  of  a  sense  of  duty  to  my  country,  and 
because  I  am  firmly  persuaded  that  the  safety  of  this 
country  is  being  affected  by  conditions  which  exist  in 
Ireland,  and  by  the  consequences  of  those  Irish  condi- 
tions as  they  are  being  unfolded  in  a  disquieting  way  in 
this  country. 

Let  it  be  noted  at  the  outset,  and  never  forgotten, 
that  our  fundamental  concern  is  the  safety  of  our  coun- 
try, and  anything  that  puts  this  safety  in  peril  or 
renders  it  a  matter  of  doubt  is  anathema  with  us. 

Let  it  be  clearly  understood  that  any  support,  moral 
or  financial,  given  in  America  to  any  movement  in 
Ireland,  the  object  of  which  or  the  effect  of  which  is 
to  embarrass  the  full  efficiency  of  the  British  fighting 
forces,  is  now  treasonable  to  the  people  and  to  the 
Government  of  this  country;  and  that  any  attack  made 
in  America  upon  any  movement  in  Ireland  because  it 
seeks  to  maintain  the  British  fighting  force  at  its 
fullest  possible  efficiency,  is  likewise  now  treasonable 
to  the  people  and  to  the  Government  of  this  country. 

Let   me  put   these   ideas   a  little  more   concretely. 

The  Sinn  Fein  Party  is  now  a  physical  force  move- 
ment, planned  to  take  advantage  of  the  perplexities 
and  embarrassment  of  the  English  Government,  with  a 
view  to  the  establishment  of  a  new  order  in  Ireland. 

A  part  of  the  program  of  the  Sinn  Fein  Party  is 
to  impair  the  fighting  strength  of  the  British  on  the 
western  line,  and,  if  it  had  it  in  its  power  to  do  so, 
it  would  crumple  that  line,  to  the  peril  or  destruction 
of    all   the    Allies,    including   our    own    country. 

The  Sinn  Feiners  wish  the  British  to  lose  the 
western  line,  while  we  wish  the  British  forces  to  hold 
that  line.  Our  strong  desire  in  this  respect  may  be 
attributed  to  at  least  three  motives:  To  our  convic- 
tion, antedating  our  own  entry  in  the  war,  that 
Germany,  the  outlaw  of  Europe,  must  be  put  down  to 
preserve  a  civilization  which  is  a  part  of  the  warp 
and  woof  of  our  lives;  secondly,  that  now  we  are  in 
the  war  in  alliance  with  England,  the  high  obligation 
of  national  fidelity  to  our  Ally  makes  it  a  matter  of 
honor  that  we  should  so   desire;   and  lastly,  that  a  part 


54 

of  that  line  is  or  may  be  now  held  and  the  whole  line 
reinforced  by  American  troops. 

It  is  at  this  point  in  the  road  that  every  loyal 
American  must  part  company  with  every  Sinn  Feiner, 
for  no  man  can  levy  war  upon  our  Allies  without 
levying  war  upon  us. 

I  have  not  overstated  the  program  of  the  Sinn  Fein 
party. 

Mr.  De  Valera,  its  official  leader,  has  stated  his  posi- 
tion to  be: 

'^England  is  in  occupation  of  my  country.  Until 
she  removes  her  troops,  England  and  Ireland  are  in 
a  state  of  war.  While  we  are  in  a  state  of  war 
England ^s  enemies  must  be  Ireland's  friends." 

Mr.  Arthur  Griffith,  the  founder  and  one  of  the 
leaders  of  the  party,  when  asked  whether,  as  a  Sinn 
Feiner,  he  was  in  sympathy  with  the  German  cause, 
replied: 

''I  am  not  pro-German.  But  Germany  is  the  enemy 
of  England,  and  England  is  my  enemy.  You  may 
draw  your  own  conclusions.'' 

A  conference  of  the  Sinn  Fein  Party  opened  at 
Dublin,  October  26,  with  Mr.  De  Valera  at  its  head.  A 
provisional  constitution,  aiming  at  an  Irish  republic, 
was  adopted;  the  convention  drew  up  a  secession  pro- 
gram; and  the  organization  took  steps  to  oppose  ex- 
portation of  food  from  Ireland  to  England. 

In  other  words,  the  Sinn  Feiners  are  not  content 
to  levy  war  upon  England,  only  in  a  military  sense; 
they  propose  to  destroy  her  by  economic  and  industrial 
warfare. 

It  ^  appeared  clearly  to  the  great  Irish  Churchman, 
Cardinal  Logue,  that  the  Sinn  Feiners  were  traveling 
the  road  of  destruction,  for  he  issued  a  pastoral  in 
November  warning  Ireland  against  an  agitation  for 
a  republic;  and  the  least  that  may  be  said  about  the 
program  of  the  Sinn  Fein  conference  is  that  it  is  made 
up  of  objectives  at  the  moment  unattainable. 

If  it  be  said  that  the  Sinn  Fein  leaders  are  idealists 
and  poets,  and  men  of  high  character,  possessed  of 
an  all-consuming  love  for  Ireland,  I  make  answer  that 
they  are  levying  war  upon  our  Ally,  and  in  doing  that 
they  are  levying  war  upon  us. 

An  American  has  no  other  answer,  and  he  needs  none. 


55 

1  pass  now  from  the  Sinn  Fein  Party  to  its  sup- 
porters in  America. 

In  speaking  to  this  point  I  have  no  men  in  mind.  I 
speak  in  a  purely  impersonal  way.  I  have  no  disposi- 
tion to  precipitate  a  controversy;  indeed,  it  would  please 
me  beyond  measure  to  bring  all  controversies  to  a  close 
so  that  Americans  of  Irish  origin,  to  the  very  last  man, 
might  present  the  spectacle  of  a  splendid  union  in  an 
undivided    and   whole-hearted    support   of   our   country. 

I  put  this  matter  before  you,  therefore,  in  no  con- 
troversial spirit,  but  as  a  matter  of  serious  moment  to 
the  country  and  involving  the  good  repute  of  Americans 
of   Irish    origin. 

We  know  that  the  Sinn  Feiners  have  supporters  in 
America,  and,  considering  the  purposes  of  that  party 
as  I  have  outlined  them  to  you,  and  considering  that 
the  party  is  in  effect  levying  war  upon  us,  it  follows 
that  any  support  given  to  that  party  in  America 
amounts   to    disaffection,    disloyalty    and   treason. 

T  know  that  in  the  overwhelming  majority  of  cases 
neither  disaffection  nor  disloyalty  nor  treason  is  in- 
tended, for  many  well-intentioned  men,  desiring  to  be 
loyal  to  the  country,  are  led  astray  and  are  unconscious 
of  the  inexorable  logic  by  which  their  disaffection,  dis- 
loyalty  and   treason   are  made   out. 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that,  without  controversies,  without 
feuds,  and  upon  reflection,  these  men  will  realize 
that  loyalty  and  devotion  must  be  undivided  and  cannot 
exist   to    cross — and   diametrically   opposed — purposes. 

I  think  that  I  have  made  this  point  clear,  and,  as 
it  is  a  painful  subject,  I  pass  to  another  phase  of 
the  Irish  situation  affecting  the  safety  of  the  country. 

The  public  opinion  of  Ireland  is  in  a  condition  bor- 
dering on  madness,  and  in  America  and  elsewhere 
throughout  the  world  men  of  Irish  origin  are  in  a 
state  of  exasperation  and  fury,  not  without  justification, 
in  consequent  of  recent  breakdowns  in  the  power  of  the 
English  Government  respecting  matters  affecting  Irish 
rights. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  within  a  very  few  years 
the  unwritten  British  Constitution  had  to  be  amended 
in  order  to  pass  a  Home  Rule  measure,  inasmuch  as 
the  House  of  Lords  stood  the  implacable  foe  of  every 
measure  of  that  nature. 

Under    a   threat    by    the    Liberal    government    thAt,   if 


56 

the  House  of  Lords  did  not  yield  and  respect  the 
will  of  the  people  when  repeatedly  expressed  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  the  Government  would  enlarge  the 
membership  of  the  House  of  Lords  and  thereby  over- 
throw its  then  majority,  a  law  came  to  be  agreed  upon 
which  was  in  effect  an  amendment  of  the  unwritten 
British  Constitution,  by  the  terms  of  which  a  measure 
passed  by  the  House  of  Commons  in  three  different 
sessions  would  become  a  law  without  a  concurrence 
of  the   House   of  Lords. 

Just  upon  the  eve  of  the  war  the  House  of  Commons 
passed  the  Home  Rule  bill  for  the  third  time,  and  it  was 
about  to  come  into  operation  as  a  law  of  the  United 
Kingdom  when  the  Ulster  Eebellion  occurred. 

The  most  conspicuous  figure  in  that  movement  of 
nullification,  treason  and  threatened  civil  war  was  Sir 
Edward  Carson,  through  whose  activities  an  armed 
force,  said  to  have  amounted  to  100,000  men,  was 
enlisted  to  resist  the  enforcement  of  the  Home  Rule 
bill  and  to  nullify  that  legislation  for  which  the  Na- 
tionalist Party  had  conducted  an  orderly  and  constitu- 
tional agitation  for  thirty  years  in  the  just  expectation 
that  when  the  legislation  was  achieved,  after  having 
been  long  labored  for  and  justly  won,  there  would  be 
that  acquiescence  which  is  essential  to  the  maintenance 
of  all  governments  in  which  majorities  rule. 

In  fact,  William  James,  in  a  memorable  address,  said 
of  democracy  that  it  depended  upon  two  habits,  and 
that  one  of  them  is  the  habit  of  trained  and  disciplined 
good  temper  towards  the  opposite  party  when  it  fairly 
wins  its  innings. 

In  the  case  of  Home  Rule,  there  was  no  good  temper, 
but  armed  resistance. 

The  Liberal  government  was  possessed  of  a  sense  of 
weakness;  was  conscious,  or  seemed  to  be  conscious,  of 
its  inability  to  support  the  legislation  with  the  force 
necessary  to  put  it  into  operation.  The  Liberal  govern- 
ment temporized  with  the  Ulster  Rebellion,  and  the  war 
came  on,  and  all  the  difficulties  of  division  and  contro- 
versy existing  amongst  groups  of  Englishmen  made  it 
necessary  for  the  Liberal  government  to  create  a  coali- 
tion government  and  to  divide  its  power  with  Sir  Ed- 
ward Carson,  thereby  putting  a  tremendous  premium  on 
lawlessness  and  treason. 

In   other  matters  of  vital  moment   and   affecting  Irish 


57 

conditions,  and  in  the  conduct  of  the  war  itself,  the 
English  Government  has  been  driven  by  internal  con- 
ditions to  the  pursuit  of  policies  which  have  increased 
the  exasperation  of  the  Irish  and  alienated  many  of 
them  from  the  zealous  support  of  the  cause  of  the 
Allies,  with  which  they  were  possessed  when  the  war 
opened. 

In  these  circumstances  it  is  an  obvious  duty  which 
England  owes  to  all  our  Allies,  and  to  America  in 
particular,  to  settle  these  Irish  difficulties,  and  to  settle 
them  at  once  so  that  Ireland  may  be  pacified  and  men  of 
Irish  origin  throughout  the  world  may  be  reconciled,  and 
that  it  may  not  hereafter  be  said,  as  heretofore,  that 
England  is  solicitous  of  the  fortunes  of  small  nations  in 
the  abstract,  but  indifferent  to  them  in  the  concrete. 

If  Americans  of  Irish  origin  are  true  to  the  obliga- 
tions of  fidelity  which  they  owe  to  our  country,  and 
are  also  true  to  the  incidental  obligations  which  they 
owe  to  her  Allies,  we  will  be  in  a  situation  to  make 
representations  to  our  Government  and  to  the  President 
in  line  with  these  ideas. 

I  have  not  the  slightest  doubt  that  the  President, 
with  the  clear  vision  of  which  he  is  possessed,  with 
his  strong  love  of  liberty  and  justice,  and  with  his 
set  determination  to  reach  the  just  objectives  that  he 
puts  before  himself,  will,  the  season  being  propitious 
and  the  time  ripe,  make  effective  representations  to 
England,  and  thus  remove  the  menace  that  she  has 
herself  created  in  alienating  so  many  of  the  people 
of  Ireland  and  in  impairing  the  sympathetic  support 
of  many  men  of  Irish  origin  in  all  quarters  of  the 
earth. 

These  two  matters  of  national  concern  and  importance 
prompted  me  to  ask  Mr.  O'Connor  to  be  our  guest 
of  honor  at  this  dinner;  and  I  may  say  that  1  did 
so  in  the  clear  conviction  that  Irish  affairs  can  be 
so  ordered  as  to  serve  the  cause  of  the  Allies  and 
secure  recognition  for  the  just  claims  of  Ireland 
through  the  good  offices  of  the  Nationalist  Party,  which 
has  served  in  the  affairs  of  Ireland  so  long,  so  honorably 
and  so  disinterestedly. 

With  all  these  sentiments  in  mind,  I  have  the  greatest 
possible  pleasure  in  presenting  Mr.  O'Connor  to  you,  for 
himself   but  not  for  himself   alone,  but   as  well  because 


58 


he  is  the  representative   of  the  great   Nationalist  Party 
of  Ireland,  which  is  our  Ally  in  the  war. 


SAN  FEANCISCO   EXAMINER,   APRIL   8,   1918. 

The  resolutions  as  adopted  unanimously,  on  April  7, 
by  the  640  delegates  to  the  1918  St.  Patrick's  Day  Con- 
vention  of  San  Francisco,  follow: 

"Whereas,  There  was  recently  printed  m  the  public 
press  the  text  of  a  speech  delivered  at  a  banquet  held 
in  this  city,  in  honor  of  T.  P.  O'Connor,  member  of  the 
British  Parliament  from  an  English   constituency;    and, 

*' Whereas,  The  host  at  said  banquet,  pretending  to 
speak  as  an  American  citizen  of  Irish  parents,  bitterly 
and  unjustly  assailed  and  misrepresented  the  purposes 
and  activities  of  the  vSinn  Fein  party  in  Ireland,  as 
well  as  those  Americans  who  believe  that  Ireland,  m 
company  with  Belgium,  Serbia,  Poland  and  all  other 
small  nations,  should  be  allowed,  without  delay,  to  select 
the  kind  of  government   they  desire;    and, 

''Whereas,  The  said  speaker  insinuated  that  these 
Americans,  who  protested  against  England's  continued 
forceful  occupation  of  Ireland,  were  not  loyal  to  the 
United  States  of  America;  and, 

''Whereas,  The  loyalty  of  the  Irish  people  in  America 
to  the  United  States  is  and  has  been  unquestioned,  as 
is  attested  to  by  the  fact  that  the  Irish  constitute 
the  greatest  percentage  of  volunteers  in  the  United 
States  army,  and  by  the  further  fact  that  it  appears, 
from  an  official  statement,  issued  by  Major- General 
Crowder,  U.  S.  A.,  that  the  aliens  in  the  United  States, 
waiving  their  rights  of  exemption  under  the  draft,  were 
led  by  the  Irish;   therefore,  be  it 

"Resolved,  By  the  St.  Patrick's  Day  Convention  of 
1918,  representing  sixty-four  Irish  societies  in  San 
Francisco,  with  a  membership  of  more  than  50,000 
American  citizens,  in  regular  session  assemt)led,  that  we 
emphatically  denounce  the  aforesaid  statements  and  as- 
persions on  our  race,  as  expressed  at  the  said  banquet 
to  T,  P.  O'Connor,  as  being  untimely,  misleading,  untrue 
and  un-American,  and  as  being  characterized  by  gross 
ignorance   of   the   Irish   question,   as   well    as    a    complete 


59 

failure  to  comprehend  the  true  spirit  and  ideals  of  the 
American  people;   and,  be  it  further 

''Eesolved,  That  this  convention,  again  endorsing  the 
imperishable  truths  of  the  American  Declaration  of 
Independence,  which  declared  that  all  governments  de- 
rive their  just  powers  from  the  consent  of  the  gov- 
erned, and  again  approving  the  statement  of  President 
Woodrow  Wilson  when  he  said  that  this  country  shall 
''fight  for  the  rights  and  liberties  of  small  nations,"  ex- 
tends its  heartfelt  sympathy  to  our  heroic  kinsmen  in 
Ireland  in  their  struggle  for  independence;  and  be  it 
further 

''Eesolved,  That  this  convention  expresses  the  hope 
that  the  Government  of  the  United  States,  which  is 
today  the  most  powerful  exponent  of  genuine  democracy 
in  the  world,  may  use  its  great  influence  to  extend 
the  beneficent  principles  of  human  liberty  and  ''self- 
determination"  to  the  downtrodden  and  enslaved  people 
of  Ireland,  who  are  engaged  in  the  same  struggle  for 
independence  that  was  successfully  carried  on  hy  the 
American  colonies  under  the  leadership  of  the  immortal 
Washington   and  his   co-patriots." 


SAN  FRANCISCO   EXAMINER,  APRIL   8,    1918. 

Mr.  McEnerney's  reply  to  the  St.  Patrick's  Day  Con- 
vention,  dated   April   7: 

"This  is  an  American  question,  not  an  Irish  question. 

"The  Sinn  Feiners  in  Ireland  and  their  adherents  in 
America  are  anti-English  and  pro-German.  The  camou- 
flage is  not  thick  enough  to  hide  the  Tact.  ^The  Sinn 
Feiners  have  been  and  are  in  a  state  of  war  against 
our  Ally,  and  until  all  avenues  of  communication  were 
closed  they  were  conspiring  with  Germany  through 
American  and  other  channels  to  bring  about  the  down- 
fall of  the  Allies.  The  Americans  who  have  been 
promoting  these  Sinn  Fein  activities  were  violating 
the  neutrality  laws  of  this  country  until  April  6, 
1917,  when  we  entered  the  war,  and  since  that  date 
their  conduct  has  been  treasonable  to  tne  people  and 
Government  of  this  country.  Where  we  will  head  up, 
unless   something   is   done,   is   shown  by   an   item   in   the 


6o 


'Monitor'  of  March  30.  The  State  Council  of  Defense 
of  Montana  was  obliged  to  suppress  a  jjarade  of  Sinn 
Feiners  at  Butte  on  St.  Patrick's  Day,  and  to  enforce 
the  order  of  suppression  with  Federal  troops. 

Draft  Irishmen. 

''If  the  United  Irish  Societies  desire  to  serve  and 
not  to  disserve  this  country,  I  suggest  that  they  recon- 
vene and  ask  the  authorities  at  Washington  to  provide 
machinery  for  drafting  into  our  armies  all  Irishmen 
between  21  and  31  now  in  this  country,  but  not  citi- 
zens thereof.  These  young  Irishmen  are  not  subjects 
of  an  alien  enemy  country,  nor  of  a  neutral  country. 
Many  of  them  are  disaffected  subjects  of  an  Ally,  and  if 
they  wish  the  asylum  of  this  country  they  should  be 
prepared  to  fight  for  her  safety. 

"There  is  no  reason  why  American  men  of  military 
age  should  sacrifice  their  careers  and  imperil  and  forfeit 
their  lives  to  make  America  safe  for  unnaturalized 
Irishmen  of  the  same  age  who  will  not  fight  for  the 
country,  and  under  present  regulations  cannot  be  made 
to  do  so.  If  they  cannot  be  drafted,  I  suggest  that 
they  be  returned  to  Ireland,  thereby  lessening  two  bur- 
dens upon  our  Government;  first,  the  necessity  for  the 
surveillance  now  maintained  over  all  aliens,  and,  sec- 
ondly, the  duty  of  husbanding  our  food  resources  for 
the  armies  and  civil  population  of  the  country. 

Called  Disloyal. 

"Of  course,  the  whole  trouble  with  many  of  these 
young  Irishmen  is  that  they  have  been  poison-gassed 
by  Sinn  Fein,  which  means,  for  ourselves  alone;  and 
these  same  men  are  infected  with  disloyalty,  even  to 
the  country  of  their  asylum,  because  that  country  is  in 
alliance  with  one  whom  they  feel  to  be  their  hereditary 
foe. 

"A  word  or  two  more  about  the  United  Irish  Socie- 
ties. If  the  members  of  the  United  Irish  Societies  are 
for  the  complete  triumph  of  British  arms  and  the 
utter  destruction  of  German  arms;  and  if  they  are 
for  this  in  an  unqualified  and  wholehearted  way,  and 
if  their  feelings,  professions  and  conduct  square  with 
this  test,  then  they  are  loj^al  Americans;  otherwise 
not. 

"If   th«   United   Irish   Societies   desire    to   give   unmis- 


6i 


takable  evidence  of  their  own  loyalty,  let  them  begin 
at  once  a  nation-wide  agitation  in  favor  of  wholesale 
enlistments  in  Ireland,  and  also  for  the  complete  pacifi- 
cation of  Ireland,  so  that  500,000  English  troops  now 
held  in  Ireland  to  maintain  order  may  be  added  to  the 
western  line.  Strengthening  the  British  army  by 
wholesale  Irish  enlistments  and  the  transfer  of  British 
troops  from  Ireland  to  France  may  save  the  whole 
allied  cause,  including  America,  and  I  suggest  to  the 
United  Irish  Societies  that  such  an  object  is  well 
worthy  of  the  devotion  of  all  loyal  Americans." 


SAN  FRANCISCO,  CHRONICLE,  APRIL  8,  1918. 

Walter  McGovern,  acting  chairman  of  the  St.  Pat- 
rick's Day  Convention,  issued  the  following  statement 
last  night  in  explanation  of  the  resolution  adopted  by 
the   convention: 

''It  is  unfortunate  that  one  so  prominent  as  Mr. 
McEnerney  should  be  misled  into  speaking  in  public  on 
a  subject  that,  obviously,  he  knows  very  little  about. 
Mr.  McEnerney  is  unquestionably  a  successful  juridical 
statesman,  but  his  knowledge  of  the  Irish  question  is 
decidedly  limited.  He  has  never  been  affiliated  with 
the  Irish  movement  in  any  capacity.  His  recent  remarks 
at  the  O  'Connor  banquet  betray  a  pitiful  lack  of  appre- 
ciation of  the  aims  and  aspirations  of  the  race  he  claims 
as  his  own. 

''It  is  also  apparent  that  the  generous  host  of 
O'Connor  does  not  fully  comprehend  the  great  soul  of 
America.  He  does  our  country  an  injustice  when  he 
insinuates  that  loyalty  to  the  cause  of  Irish  independ- 
ence spells  disloyalty  to  the  United  States.  Nothing 
could  be  further  from  the  truth.  American  democracy 
has  no  racial  or  geographical  limitations.  The  funda- 
mental truths  of  our  Declaration  of  Independence  set- 
ting forth  the  principle  that  all  governments  derive 
their  just  powers  from  the  consent  of  the  governed, 
has  no  stop-watch  attachment.  It  was  meant  to  apply 
at  all  times,  and  in  all  lands,  everywhere. 

"When  President  Wilson  declared  that  we  were  in 
this  war   'to  fight  for   the  rights  and   liberties   of   small 


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D    001  069  020    4 


nations'  he  did  not  exclude  Ireland.  Nor  did  he  in- 
timate that  the  right  of  self-determination  should  be 
accorded  only  to  the  people  held  in  political  slavery 
by  the  Central  Empires.  His  words  applied  to  Ireland 
as  well  as  to  Belgium.  President-  Wilson  is  no  hypo- 
crite; he  is  not  demanding  democracy  for  Belgium 
while  protecting  plutocracy  in  Ireland. 

''England's  spokesman  in  San  Francisco  presented 
the  truism  that  our  fundamental  concern  was  the 
safety,  of  our  country.  He  then  added  that  ii  was 
treasonable  to  do  anything  to  embarrass  the  full 
efficiency  of  the  British  fighting  forces.  We  answer 
that  the  enemies  of  Irish  independence  are  the  ones 
who  are  embarrassing  the  efficiency  of  the  British  fight- 
ing forces.  Were  England  to  practice  what  she  preaches 
and  give  Ireland  her  independence,  England's  army  of 
occupation  in  Ireland,  estimated  to  exceed  200,000  men, 
could  be  quickly  released  and  sent  into  the  trenches  to 
back  up  our  gallant  American  fighters. 

Shouldn't  Export  Food. 

''Mr.  McEnerney  criticises  the  Sinn  Feiners  for  op- 
posing the  exportation  of  food  from  Ireland  to  England. 
In  the  light  of  past  experience,  the  Sinn  Feiners  are 
right  in  their  stand.  Ireland's  products  belong  to  the 
people  of  Ireland,  and  it  is  wrong  to  export  food  from 
Ireland  so  long  as  the  Irish  people  are  in  want.  During 
the  so-called  famine  of  1847,  when  the  whole  world  was 
sending  relief  ships  to  starving  Ireland,  English  land- 
lords were  shipping  Irish  produce  to  England.  The 
Sinn  Feiners  are  the  progressives  of  Ireland — in  every 
important  particular  like  the  American  Minute  Men 
of    '76. 

"Toward  the  latter  part  of  his  speech  Mr.  McEnerney 
subtly  apologized  for  his  unwarranted  insinuations 
against  his  people,  by  declaring  that  England  should 
settle  the  Irish  question.  In  that  we  again  disagree. 
Ireland,  not  England,  should  settle  the  Irish  question. 
To  every  real  American  the  so-called  Irish  question 
presents  itself  in  this  form:  What  kind  of  government 
do  the  people  of  Ireland  desire?  And  the  only  people 
who  can  answer  that  question  are  the  Irish  people 
themselves. " 


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